However, that isn’t to say I haven’t seen some amazing food friends are making. So if I may, we will go peek in a few windows and savor all the food being served elsewhere. A progressive dinner of sorts. You know the kind you share with a group of friends, each choosing a course and preparing it. You travel through out the evening eating at different homes and enjoying the company of each other without all the work of doing it yourself. Yes, let’s do that. I also need to thank Barb of Creative Culinary for the use of her Thanksgiving Table photo. It made the post!

First stop? Barb’s house. I couldn’t resist this Crab and Mushroom Cheesecake appetizer! Come to find out she’s asked Nancy’s advice for a last minute sensation. And, boy I cannot think of anyone who might not like this appetizer.

Speaking of Nancy, let’s head on over and see what else we can spy on the holiday table. Oh perfect! A citrus salad. Citrus Salad with Mint Gremolata is a great second course choice. Citrus is so plentiful in December and the citrus combination compliments the appetizer so well.

So where are we headed for the main dish? Oh let’s get on a ship and head over to Katie’s, for her Christmas Beef Wellington. Katie is a food photographer who has kept such a fabulous food photography journal for all of us to enjoy. This post of hers features not only Beef Wellington, but every imaginable foodstuff to feast on during the holidays. Scroll to the bottom and she’s provided all of her recipes in a pdf!

Oh man, I’m stuffed. But we need dessert. Something not too heavy. I’d love to say a plate of cookies from Calleye’s, or a nice Maple Walnut Christmas Trifle from Tim at Lottie and Doof and a big plate of Orange, Cranberry and Pistachio Truffles from Sylvie. Each one of these is a perfect finish to a wonderful gathering. I’m going to grab a bite of each!

We’ll finish our evening with great conversation, laughter and a great feeling of camaraderie. To make this evening last through tomorrow and days beyond Kimmee has bagged up some of her crisp Three Ginger Gingersnaps for all to take home with us. Merry Christmas everyone!

I like gingerbread cake. And, last year I was asked to bake cakes for a church dinner and decided to make them look like gingerbread houses. It was so successful, this year I decided to give mini cakes a try. I only wish the temperatures here in SoCal weren’t in the mid 80s. My buttercream frosting was so soft by the time the house was finished, you could see it melting.
Just how did I put it together? Simple. First you bake a gingerbread cake. I used only half the batter at a time to bake off layers. I knew I wanted them to only be about a half inch thick and a half batter would do that. Once the layer was cooled I cut it into fourths.

Place the first layer on a plate and center it. Add a layer of buttercream and another piece of the cake on top of the icing. Ice the top of the second layer in preparation for the roof pieces.

With a third piece of the gingerbread, cut it into fourths, diagonally, making your roof. This is the point at which you’ll have the most difficulty in assembling your cakes. You will want to use buttercream to sandwich them together, laying them on top of the second layer, the widest side on top of the icing to form the roof.
See? A cute little house. Almost.

Give your house a thin covering of buttercream and let it chill for a bit, 30 minutes or so. While the cake is chilling mix up your colored frostings and get your pastry bags filled with icing. You will now decorate your cakes. I used red to make a brick covered house. Add green for bushes on all sides with red berries. Added a door with the same brown I used for the roof. The last step was to add the snow to give it that winter wonderland feel. The cakes are large enough to feed at least two people dessert. I like the way they can dress up a table and then be used as the dessert for a holiday gathering.

Easy to make. Easy to assemble and festive. With the two layers you get from one batter you’ll have enough to make 3 mini cakes.

Gingerbread recipe

* 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter, melted

* 1/3 cup brown sugar
* 1 cup molasses
* 1 egg
* 3/4 cup hot water

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Heat the oven to 350 F degrees. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray. Add a piece of parchment paper to the bottom of the pan to assist in layer removal once cooled.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in molasses, egg, and water. Combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl all at once and beat on medium speed for about a minute, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula occasionally.

Pour half of the batter into the pan and bake it for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool and remove from pan. Repeat with balance of batter. Once both layers are cooled you can begin assembling your mini gingerbread cakes.

From my cookbook, The French Chef Cookbook

I went to see Julie and Julia on Monday. I’m considering going to see it again this evening. I enjoyed every bit of the movie. It was fun to see on celluloid the story as interpreted by Hollywood. Meryl Streep played a perfect Julia. Amy Adams was a kind nod to Julie Powell.

It was surreal to see the film version of a blog I had read in 2002. The food blogging community then, was a small group of bloggers, and it wasn’t difficult to find a food blogger with a story. Julie fascinated many of us with her antics and goal. It wasn’t until the book deal that things got ugly. Volleys were thrown back and forth, with prominent bloggers challenging Julie’s abilities as a cook, with Julie answering with terse or non-existent responses. A word I read far more than any other descriptive was “bitch”. Sadly, it turned me off to the whole drama and I walked away. I didn’t buy the book, and was surprised to read of the movie.

I did love the fact that in the movie, whoever wrote the screen play, cut everyone off at the pass with regard to the “bitch” reference. Instead of trying to dance around the word, they hit it head on and didn’t leave room for the community as a whole to push it further or monopolize on the lack of illustration in the movie. Well done, screen writer. My only wish would be that Julie Powell had pursued her wish to actually meet Mrs. Child. She had time, she had connections, lost opportunities it seemed.

Back to Julia. What I found most interesting was they way she cooked. She learned traditional French cooking at a time when women were not really accepted in the profession. Butter, sauces, mayonnaise, and heavy cream were her standard bearers. It is wonderful to know that she cooked everything using these ingredients – from scratch – and lived to be two days shy of her 92 birthday. As did her husband. All those evil fats and rich creams, must have done her in! When people mention we should not be eating naturally produced butter, cheeses and creams, much less the foods they produce, I will remind them of Julia. It isn’t the natural foods that are killing us, it’s the processed ones, people.